Cancer Resources > Cancer News > 2000 > May

Aggressive treatment for early prostate cancer cost -effective

By Valerie Gregg

ATLANTA, GA, May 02 (Reuters Health) - Treating early prostate cancer aggressively is much less costly than treating it after it metastasizes, even in older patients, a researcher reported at the annual meeting of the American Urological Society here.

"The direct costs of radical prostatectomy and radiation therapy for localized carcinoma of the prostate are well known," said Dr. Natania Y. Piper, an epidemiologist at Brook Army Medical Center in Fort Sam, Houston, Texas. "The cost of terminal care for men with metastatic prostate cancer is less well known."

Dr. Piper and colleagues reviewed the charts of 32 men who died of prostate cancer from 1995 to 1997 at the San Antonio Uniformed Services Health Education Consortium, a group of five military hospitals in San Antonio, Texas. To determine the financial cost of metastatic prostate cancer, they examined duration of the disease, hospitalization, palliative care, radiation therapy, chemotherapy and transfusions.

They assigned costs to the procedures according to the billing codes at local civilian hospitals.

The combined cost was $24,660 for terminal care, compared with $12,250 for radical prostatectomy and $13,823 for radiation therapy.

Dr. Piper said that the cost figure for terminal prostate cancer is probably much higher. "We didn't include costs for hospice, home healthcare, outpatient medication, not to mention the non-measurable costs such as depression for the patients and their families," she said.

About 41,000 American men die of prostate cancer each year at a national cost of at least $1 billion. It often takes up to 10 years for the disease to metastasize, and there has been debate about the necessity to treat patients over 70, since they would likely die of other causes before the cancer spread.

"If you have a patient between 70 and 75 with early prostate cancer, go ahead and treat them," Dr. Piper urged. "In the past, physicians wondered if the patient had a long enough life span regardless of prostate cancer to make invasive treatments worthwhile. Our conclusion is early detection and treatment saves lives, misery and money."

The paper has been submitted to the journal Urology for publication.

Add OncoLink News to Palm AvantGo Channels

Copyright © 2010 Reuters Limited. All rights reserved.
Republication or redistribution of Reuters content, including by framing or similar means, is expressly prohibited without the prior written consent of Reuters. Reuters shall not be liable for any errors or delays in the content, or for any actions taken in reliance thereon. Reuters and the Reuters sphere logo are registered trademarks and trademarks of the Reuters group of companies around the world.